1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and method for providing indicators of component interaction capability across navigation elements. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for aiding a user in locating compatible handler portlets when an emitter portlet is known, as well as aiding a user in locating compatible emitter portlets when a handler portlet is known.
2. Description of the Related Art
A portal has traditionally been a Web-based application that includes “portlets,” which are used as pluggable user interface components that provide a presentation layer to information systems. Portals have since evolved, and are now accepted as a critical mainstream development technology whose growth has outpaced most software technologies. Originally, portals were a means of aggregating content. Now, portals are used as a platform for developing integrated applications that are created from disparate backend applications and/or separate elements of large, complex, backend applications.
Using a technology that allows portlets to exchange data, such as IBM's Property Broker, a portal's portlets may generate (emit) data values with a particular property type, and may also receive (handle) data values with a particular property. During development, a user matches an emitter portlet with a compatible handler portlet that is able to process the emitter portlet's output property type.
During runtime, a user typically views portlets on a page-by-page basis, whereby each page represents a particular interface. When matching emitter portlets with handler portlets (and visa versa), compatible portlets may be located on different pages. A challenge found is that the user is not aware of all of the compatible portlets because the user views one particular page, and is not notified as to whether other compatible portlets are located on different pages.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method for providing a user with indicators of portlet compatibility across pages.